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RIO HATO, Panama a Three Panamanian men were on their way home after a night of fishing, happy with their success, when the motor on their small open boat rattled and quit, leaving them adrift in sight of land, but too far out for their cellphones to work.

With nothing left to eat but the fish they caught and a few gallons of water, they drifted for 16 days, more than 100 miles from home, before they thought they were about to be saved.

Adrian Vasquez, 18, saw a huge white ship coming toward them. He waved a red sweater to get their attention, reaching high over his head, and dropping it low to his knees. Though he was near death, the skipper of the little panga, Elvis Oropeza Betancourt, 31, joined in, waving an orange life jacket.

aTio, look whatas coming over there,a Mr. Vasquez recalled saying in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press. aWe felt happy, because we thought they were coming to rescue us.a

The ship didnat stop, and the fishing boat drifted another two weeks before it was found. By then, Mr. Vasquezas two friends had died.

aI said, aGod will not forgive them,aa Mr. Vasquez recalled. aToday, I still feel rage when I remember that.a

The day of the first sighting, March 10, birdwatchers with powerful spotting scopes on the promenade deck of the luxury cruise ship Star Princess saw a little boat adrift miles away. They told ship staff about the man desperately waving a red cloth.

On Thursday, Princess Cruises, based in Santa Clarita, Calif., said a preliminary investigation showed that passengersa reports that they had spotted a boat in distress never made it to Capt. Edward Perrin or the officer on duty.

If it did, the company said, the captain and crew would have altered course to rescue the men, just as the cruise line has done more than 30 times in the last 10 years. The company expressed sympathy for the men and their families.

The fishermen had set out for a night of fishing Feb. 24 from Rio Hato, a small fishing and farming town on the Pacific coast of Panama that was once the site of a U.S. Army base guarding the Panama Canal. There are plans for a new airport to bring in tourists. Mr. Vasquez had lost his job as a gardener at a local hotel, and Oropeza invited him to come fishing to make a little money. The night before, they had no luck, so they were very happy to have a load of fish to sell, Mr. Vasquez said.

By the time they started to drift, Mr. Vasquez had eaten his lunch of rice and beef. They only had five gallons of water to start with, and much of that was gone. There was raw fish to eat, but no one liked it very much, and it soon rotted after the ice melted in the coolers. Sometimes Mr. Vasquez went over the side to probe passing rafts of debris, and sometimes came up with coconuts for them to eat. At one point, they caught a turtle, but decided they couldnat eat it and put it back in the water. As they were, they found a jug of water that they drank awith tremendous anxiety.a

One night they saw a ship far in the distance, and lit a rag on a stick that they waved, but the ship didnat come for them.

On the Star Princess, birdwatcher Jeff Gilligan from Portland, Ore., was the first to spot the boat, something white that looked like a house.

When Judy Meredith of Bend, Ore., looked through the scopes, she could plainly see it was a small open boat, like the kinds they had seen off Ecuador. And she could see a man waving what looked like a dark red T-shirt.

aYou donat wave a shirt like that just to be friendly,a Ms. Meredith said. aHe was desperate to get our attention.a

Barred from going to the bridge herself to notify the shipas officers, Ms. Meredith said she told a Princess Cruises sales representative what they had seen, and he assured her he passed the news on to crew.

The birdwatchers said they even put the representative on one of the spotting scopes so he could see for himself.

Ms. Meredith went to her cabin and noted their coordinates from a TV feed from the ship, booted up her laptop and emailed the U.S. Coast Guard what she had seen. She said she hoped someone would get the message and help.

She sent a copy to her son. When she returned to the promenade deck, she could still see the boat.

But nothing happened. The ship kept going. And the little boat with the waving men disappeared.

aWe were kind of freaking out, thinking we donat see anything else happening,a Ms. Meredith said.

Mr. Gilligan could no longer bear to watch.

aIt was very disturbing,a he said. aWe asked other people, aWhat do you think we should do?a Their reaction was: aWell, youave done what you could do.a Whether something else could have been done, thatas a bit frustrating to think about.a

After Oropeza and Fernando Osario died, Mr. Vasquez was eventually picked up by a fishing boat off Ecuadoras Galapagos Islands, more than 600 miles from where they had set out.

Mr. Vasquez said he slipped their bodies into the sea after they began to rot in the heat. Before he was rescued, a rainstorm gave him fresh water to drink, helping him survive. Throughout the ordeal, he thought about his eight brothers, and never gave up hope.

Safe at home, Mr. Vasquez said he recognized their boat, the Fifty Cents, from the photos Mr. Gilligan had taken with his 300 mm lens.

aYes, thatas it. Thatas it. That is us,a he said. aYou can see there, the red sweater Iam waving and, above it is the sheet that we put up to protect us from the sun.a

Mr. Vasquez mentioned the ship in his first statement to Panamanian authorities when he returned to his country.

Back at home in Oregon, Ms. Meredith couldnat sleep, wondering what happened to the men. Reading a news story about a Panamanian rescued off Ecuador after 28 days in an open boat, she figured that was the boat they had seen. She pestered Princess Cruises, the Coast Guard, and even the Panamanian embassy.

aWe were all just sick about it, and just wanted to believe the ship notified someone,a she said.

The British captain of a cruise ship that failed to rescue three stricken Panamanian fishermen adrift in the Pacific Ocean is said to be devastated by accusations he ignored calls for their rescue.

Princess Cruises, the operator of the Star Princess, blamed a “breakdown in communications” for the tragedy, saying passenger reports that they had seen a boat in distress never made it to the captain or the officer on duty.

But a passenger who helped alert the ship’s crew to the fishing boat has rejected the explanation as “not credible”.

Two of the three men on the drifting boat later died of dehydration, one within hours of the Star Princess passengers attempting to raise the alarm after spotting the lost boat.

The story of Adrian Vasquez, the 18-year-old hotel worker who survived for 28 days adrift in the Pacific, was a global news story after his rescue near the Galapagos islands. But the Guardian revealed earlier this week that the fishing boat, the Fifty Cents, had been spotted on 10 March by three birdwatchers on the Star Princess, but the liner failed to stop. Later the same night, Oropeces Betancourt, 24, died of dehydration. The youngest fisherman, Fernando Osorio, 16, died on 15 March, suffering from dehydration, sunburn and heatstroke.

The cruise line, which is owned by Carnival a the same corporation behind the operators of the Costa Concordia which capsized this year a said investigations were still trying to establish the exact circumstances of the incident.

“Princess Cruises deeply regrets that two Panamanian men perished at sea after their boat became disabled in early March,” a statement said. “The preliminary results of our investigation have shown that there appeared to be a breakdown in communications in relaying the passenger’s concern.

“Neither Captain Edward Perrin nor the officer on the watch were notified. Understandably Captain Perrin is devastated that he is being accused of knowingly turning his back on people in distress. Had the captain received this information he would have had the oportunity to respond.”

It continued: “We all understand that it is our responsibility and also the law of the sea to provide assistance to any vessel in distress, and it is not an uncommon occurrence for our ships to be involved in a rescue at sea.

In fact, we have done so more than 30 times in the last 10 years. We deeply regret this incident and are continuing our investigation to fully understand the circumstances.”

But one of the birdwatching passengers who saw the boat said Carnival’s explanation didn’t “stack up”. Jim Dowdall, 54, an environmental consultant from Dublin, said: “How does a junior officer phone the bridge and come to look two times and there’s no communications? Whoever the officer on the bridge was should have taken action himself or alerted the captain.” Judy Meredith, 65, from Bend, Oregon, said she contacted a crew member, who told her he was relaying her concerns to the bridge. She said it was “horrific news” when she found out the full details of the tragedy unfolding on the small boat, and discovered that two young men had died in such desperate circumstances, and “both could have lived, had the cruise ship responded to our urgent request”.

Don Winner, a Panama-based, English-language blogger, later tracked down Vasquez, who confirmed that he and his friends had seen the cruise ship and had signalled frantically. He also confirmed that a picture taken by the cruise passengers was of his boat.

Jeff Gilligan, 61, from Portland, Oregon, who was travelling with Meredith, said a member of the crew had looked through their binoculars at the boat. “He said he could see what we were describing. We suggested that the people from the bridge came down and looked. He said they had binoculars a| We were convinced the bridge knew what was happening and thought maybe it took a while to turn around. But after a while we realised it wasn’t turning. But we told ourselves that this cruise ship would have radioed coastguards.”

Dowdall, 54, said that the crew member he spoke to had a naval uniform “with stripes on his shoulder” and said he was at the Future Cruise Sales desk. “He came out a second time and looked through our scopes again, as if he’d been told to double check. He was on a mobile or walkietalkie, in communication while we were looking. All the time the boat was getting further and further away.”

He said while it was too late for the two Panamanian men, “I would just hope they would respond by putting some formal protocol in place so that it never happens again a training right from the most junior crew member to the captain”.

“We did have optics, we had the telescopes, We demonstrated the boat was there, not just something we imagined.”

On returning home and learning of the Panamanian men’s fate, Meredith was told by a Princess Cruises customer services representative that the ship’s log recorded that the Star Princess had “made contact” with the fishing boat and they were “waving to thank them”.

While Princess have yet to respond to questions on this issue, Jeff Gilligan said he had been called by a representative who said they had mistakenly confused the dates, an explanation he said was “plausible”.

But, he said, from their conversation “they want to suggest we didn’t communicate it. We did communicate it, very clearly. That’s the whole problem, that they didn’t take people seriously.”

Princess Cruises says the captain of a cruise ship that passed by a disabled fishing boat in the Pacific Ocean last month without stopping was never told about the vessel or the three men aboard.

The company says in a statement Thursday that concerns raised by three birdwatchers who spotted the disabled boat were never passed on to Capt. Edward Perrin, or the officer of the watch.

Judy Meredith of Oregon says she told a sales representative who assured her he notified the bridge, but the ship did not stop.

Three men set out in a small boat from Rio Hato, Panama on Feb. 24. Two of them later died. Survivor Adrian Vasquez says he saw the ship and thought they were saved, but it kept going.

Original story: A cruise line is investigating allegations by passengers that crew workers ignored their pleas to rescue three fishermen adrift in the Pacific Ocean, the Guardian of London reported.

The allegations cast an uncomfortable light on a hopeful story about the sole survivor of that fishing boat, an 18-year-old hotel worker who survived for 28 days aboard his 10-foot vessel, named the Fifty Cents. He was rescued near the Galapagos Islands, nine days after he had to push his friendsa bodies overboard.

Now cruise ship passengers say those boys could have been saved. Three bird watchers say they alerted the crew of the Star Princess, owned by Carnival Corporation, which also owned the Costa Concordia.

One of the bird watchers told her version of events to Don Winner, an English-language blogger from Panama who tracked down the survivor, Adrian Vasquez. Vasquez confirmed that he and his friends had seen the cruise ship and signaled frantically with his red T-shirt and orange life vest, the Guardian reported.

The cruise line issued a statement about the allegations Tuesday: “At this time we cannot verify the facts as reported, and we are currently conducting an internal investigation on the matter.a

One bird watcher, Jeff Gilligan of Portland, Ore., told the Guardian that while scanning the ocean, he saw an object that looked like a little house.

aWe then used spotting scopes with a fixed tripod and I could see this strange little boat and at least one person standing up waving a piece of cloth high over his head, up and down,a he said. “We could see it was not moving a there were nets pulled on to the boat and apparently no nets in the water. So we soon questioned a is this a stranded, disabled boat, signaling us for help?”

They contacted United States authorities when the boat did not turn around but nothing happened.

Vasquez was saved when a rainstorm hit a few days later, which allowed him to fill four gallons of water, the Daily Mail of London reported. He ate raw fish to stay alive.

He was ultimately rescued by fishermen working off a mother ship, the Duarte V.

After he slept and was fed and hydrated intravenously, Vasquez woke.

The captain of the Duarte told the Guardian that he reacted slowly but that he cast down his gaze when the subject of his friends arose.

Regarding Deborah Kravitzas suggestion [letters, May 16] that parents can deter teenagers from texting while driving by buying a vehicle with a manual transmission:

If it were just that simple. As a sales representative, I drive at least 100 to 150 miles per day, and, unfortunately, the stick shift is only a slight deterrent to texting. Just as many using automatic transmissions find a way to juggle their Big Mac or apply their mascara and lip stick, so, too, do the shifters find a way to keep on rolling. I see it all the time. Read full article >>

Lex Products Promotes Mike Reilly to Northeast Territory Manager, and Names Javier Ferrer Sales Representative for Northeast Territory and Eastern Canada.

(PRWeb May 18, 2012)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/5/prweb9523195.htm

Lex Products Promotes Mike Reilly to Northeast Territory Manager, and Names Javier Ferrer Sales Representative for Northeast Territory and Eastern Canada.

(PRWeb May 18, 2012)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/5/prweb9523195.htm

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